An Anne Arundel County delegate says parents ought to know what schools are teaching their children about AIDS, teen pregnancy and drug abuse.What once was taught only in high school with parental consent is now taught to elementary and middle school students, often without parents' knowledge, said Delegate John Gary, R-Millersville.Gary has introduced a bill that would require schools to obtain written parental consent by mail before instructing any students on health and sexuality, which includes family life, interpersonal relationships and AIDs.

A form parents must sign before their children use indoor tanning devices will warn that the practice can cause skin cancer and possibly death under a new policy state health officials adopted Friday. "Indoor tanning can cause skin cancer. Skin cancer can be fatal," the statement reads. "To reduce the risk of skin cancer, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 18 never use tanning devices. " The language was adopted after two rounds of public comment on revisions.

Callers to telephone numbers that begin with a "900" prefix would have to be told how much the call costs and they would have to be given a chance to hang up under rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission.Of 415 Evening Sun readers and other callers to SUNDIAL Friday, 170, or 40 percent, say they have called a 900 number, and 245, or 59 percent, say they have not. Of 419 respondents, 398, or 94 percent, say that callers should be told how much the call costs and be given a chance to hang up. Twenty-one, or 5 percent, say that callers should not be told.

The swine flu vaccine will be distributed when it becomes available to every student in Howard County with parental consent, the county's health officer said last week. Dr. Peter L. Beilenson said the process probably would occur in early November and would take two weeks. Parents must give written permission for their children to receive the vaccine. "It's always going to be the parents' choice," said Patti Caplan, a spokeswoman for the county school system. "We have to have a signed form from the parent in order to get the vaccine."

By John W. Frece and John W. Frece,Annapolis Bureau of The Sun | January 22, 1991

ANNAPOLIS -- Setting up a repeat legislative struggle over the emotional issue of abortion, abortion opponents in the Senate introduced legislation last night that would prohibit abortions for birth control or sex selection and would otherwise restrict when the procedure could be performed in Maryland.The bill, introduced by Sen. John A. Cade, R-Anne Arundel, would permit abortions only if the life or physical health of the mother were endangered, in cases of rape or incest, or if it was determined the unborn child would probably be severely deformed or handicapped if carried to term.

A parental-rights bill that would require a parent's or guardian's consent before physicians could treat a child for drug abuse, alcoholism or venereal disease is before the House of Delegates Environmental Matters Committee.The Evening Sun would like to know how you feel about such a bill. Should a child have parental consent before receiving treatment for drug abuse, alcoholism or venereal disease?Please call SUNDIAL, The Baltimore Sun's telephone information system, on a Touch-Tone phone.

When all was said and done last year, and the abortion issue had been unhappily packed away for another session, Governor Schaefer -- then in the midst of a re-election campaign -- finally took a public position on the divisive issue."

It could have been my little brother. It could have been me.That's what the 16-year-old girl thinks when she hears about the 1.6 million abortions performed annually, or the more than 22 million since abortion was legalized.Her mother was single both times when she got pregnant, and both times she considered abortions, said the Catonsville girl, who asked that her name not be used."I wouldn't have my brother if my mother had had an abortion. All her friends, and her family, were saying, 'Get an abortion,' " she said.

By Mary Curtius and Mary Curtius,LOS ANGELES TIMES | December 30, 2004

WASHINGTON - Encouraged by election wins in November, anti-abortion groups say their chances of persuading the Senate to approve new abortion restrictions and to confirm abortion foes to the federal judiciary have improved sharply. Republicans are still short of the 60 votes needed to block a filibuster in the Senate, where many abortion restrictions have been defeated in the past. But abortion rights opponents have gained from the election. The Senate will have five new members who are fiercely opposed to abortion, and Democrats are soul-searching on the issue after their election losses.

KAREN BELL says that two years ago she absolutely would have voted for the parental consent law that requires teen-agers in Indiana to get their parents' permission to have an abortion.Bell, who is from Indianapolis, had been a full-time homemaker for 20 years, and parental consent made perfect sense to her. "Of course," she said, "I would have voted for the dumb thing."Anyway, I would have laid down my life that if Beck were pregnant she would have come to me."But Beck didn't. When she discovered she was pregnant, right before her 17th birthday, Becky Bell couldn't face her parents.

Matthew Brzica and his wife hardly noticed when the hospital took a few drops of blood from each of their four newborn children for routine genetic testing. But then they discovered that the state had kept the dried blood samples ever since - and was making them available to scientists for medical research. n "They're just taking DNA from young kids right out of the womb and putting it into a warehouse," said Brzica, of Victoria, Minn. "DNA is what makes us who we are. It's just not right."

House OKs parental consent for tattoos A proposal to require parental consent for tattoos and body piercings was unanimously approved yesterday by the House of Delegates, days after House Republicans tried and failed to amend the measure to address abortion rights as well. Last week, Del. Gail H. Bates, a Howard County Republican, tried to amend the bill on the chamber floor to have it require parental consent for "other invasive surgical procedures," language intended to refer to abortion.

By Julie Bykowicz and Julie Bykowicz,julie.bykowicz@baltsun.com | January 22, 2009

Gov. Martin O'Malley will push to allow the Department of Juvenile Services to share information about children in its care with other social agencies - something now prohibited by state law. The governor's bill, which he plans to announce today, would lift the parental consent requirement that hampers even simple communication. For example, when a youth is arrested, Juvenile Services workers cannot make a phone call to social services workers to see whether the child is in foster care.

Tanning in artificial devices would be prohibited for minors in Maryland without parental consent under legislation that's headed toward final passage in the General Assembly. Over objections about government intrusion and teenagers being prevented from getting a golden bronze for prom, the state Senate narrowly approved the bill on a 24-22 vote yesterday. The House of Delegates previously passed the bill, and the final vote by the Senate is expected today. Gov. Martin O'Malley has not reviewed the proposal, spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans pushed through legislation yesterday making it a federal crime to evade parental consent laws by taking minors across state lines for abortions. The 65-34 Senate vote - which came just a week after a bill on stem cell research divided several leading Republicans from their anti-abortion base - gave the party another plank for its "values" agenda. Building on parental consent requirements in many states, the vote marked another victory in the drive by abortion opponents to limit access to the procedure.

BOSTON - If I hear one more person refer to Sandra Day O'Connor as the swing vote on the Supreme Court, I'll ban him forever from my playground. I have a different metaphor for the first woman on the Supreme Court or, as she described herself archly, the FWOTSC. She's the Justice of the Peace, occupying a rather female ground as the mediating force in the court and the country. As several justices said after Ms. O'Connor's retirement announcement, she brought us closer together. But it's pretty clear now that without Mom, the kids are going to behave badly.

House OKs parental consent for tattoos A proposal to require parental consent for tattoos and body piercings was unanimously approved yesterday by the House of Delegates, days after House Republicans tried and failed to amend the measure to address abortion rights as well. Last week, Del. Gail H. Bates, a Howard County Republican, tried to amend the bill on the chamber floor to have it require parental consent for "other invasive surgical procedures," language intended to refer to abortion.

By Julie Bykowicz and Julie Bykowicz,julie.bykowicz@baltsun.com | January 22, 2009

Gov. Martin O'Malley will push to allow the Department of Juvenile Services to share information about children in its care with other social agencies - something now prohibited by state law. The governor's bill, which he plans to announce today, would lift the parental consent requirement that hampers even simple communication. For example, when a youth is arrested, Juvenile Services workers cannot make a phone call to social services workers to see whether the child is in foster care.

BOSTON - I won my merit badge in Raising a Teenager. I still wear this small and rather tattered patch on my maternal sleeve. So I get it. I understand the fear that your 15-year-old is in trouble and you're out of the loop. I understand the anger that someone else is with your 17-year-old in a crisis and you don't even know about it. This is why the laws requiring parental notification and consent have fared so much better than anything else on the anti-abortion wish list. No one thinks a teenage girl should go through the trauma of an unwanted pregnancy or the decision about abortion without a caring parent.